Act 03: Electric City

[paradigmstop]

Due to heavy repairs on Big O, Roger has been spending a lot of the down-time trying to research things about places that were not Paradigm City in hopes of finding some trace of the Union in somewhere else's history. He's been idling in three places, mostly

Comments

2

[fermionprincess]

Ah, the joy of knowledge and learning!

[You think you don't fit into this environment, Roger? Try someone even more outdated - a girl wearing medieval/fantasy-like full body armor!]

What kind of education might you be pursuing at this very moment, kind sir?

Re: 2

[paradigmstop]

It showed that he'd been here long enough to not be phased by anything at all. He nodded, his hand resting on a small library cart on which he'd placed a few encyclopaedic tomes, and smiled. Another pretty girl? Nothing he would turn down.

"Well, little miss, I'm buffing up on history a bit. Where I'm from, the longest records we had were from forty years ago, and that's it, so." He tapped one of the books. "No one remembers anything before that." That would be enough of an introduction.

"My name is Roger Smith, Negotiator. Pleased to meet you, miss...?"

[fermionprincess]

Alessandra Langelier, the chosen champion of House Consenesco - at your service!

Indeed, history is an important and interesting topic. One I excel at, dare I admit. So, sir Roger Smith the Negotiator, your place of origin is one that lacks sources of such information? How intriguing!

[paradigmstop]

He chuckled a bit."Well, Miss Langelier," he said, and leaned on the cart a bit, gesturing with one hand. "Paradigm City is a city isolated from the rest of the world. Something... happened there forty years ago, and since that incident, everyone lost their Memories." There was a weird intonation on that word, "Memories." Nobody knows what the Incident was, but I have an idea, and I'm trying to find the organisation that caused it." He paused for a second.

"Do you know of an organisation called The Union?"

1

[aheartstrength]

[ One of the cooks in the kitchen is on their break, so she's just wandering around to get a feel of what's going on in the ship. Though, was that--?

Oh! A new person (to her, at least). ]

Hey! Do you need any help?

Re: 1

[paradigmstop]

He was resting his chin on his hand, his eyes scouring some of the notes he had made. Words scribbled on pages, circled and connected with red pen, seemingly unintelligibly... he looked almost like a conspiracy theorist, were it not for the encyclopaedias. No conspiracy theorist would use encyclopaedias.

He looked up, straightened his posture. I just keep running into more and more women, he thought to himself. "I could perhaps use a hand putting some of this together," he said, and brushed off his lapel. "History from this long ago is strange to put together for me. I'm Roger, by the way. Roger Smith, Negotiator for White Chalice now, I suppose. Pleased to meet you, miss...?"

If a line works, there's no reason to stop using it. He'd gotten several names this way already, so. Reinventing the wheel and all that.

[aheartstrength]

Hoshi glanced at the notes he had scattered about and briefly wondered if he was a police officer of some kind or just wanted to get all the pieces of the puzzle together.

"Sure, you got it," she readily said with a smile and bowed at Roger in greeting. "I'm Hoshi Hikari, nice to meet'cha, Roger. I'm one of the ship's Kamen Riders and one of the chefs. So, if you need someone to fight or cook a meal, I'm your girl."

She didn't really see a need for keeping her superhero identity secret. Not a lot of Kamen Riders did...

[paradigmstop]

He full-stopped, and then dug out a small pile of notes, the top page of which had the heading, "Masked Riders."

"A 'Kamen Rider,' are you, miss Hoshi?" he repeated. To be fair, it did not look like (from what little he had gathered) the Riders were involved in the Union, but they were still curious to him. "I've not got too much information on them. I don't suppose you could tell me a little about your history? And, for instance, why you are called Riders when I have yet to see anyone ride anything?" He grinned a little on the last comment.

He indicated a chair next to him. Not the empty one across from him, certainly not.

[can_not_fly]

[Well, if Roger is calling out random people in the mess hall, he might well choose the strange teenage-looking boy with the wings and the laurel crown that is positively devouring his ration with a speed more often associated to vacuum cleaners than people.

At the call, though, Pit looks up from his plate with a questioning look (and his cheeks filled with food)]

Hmmmf?

[If magic alone hurt your disbelief... you have no idea about the well of weird you're about to drop on yourself, Roger :P]

[paradigmstop]

He'd come across the history of Brittania, and was marvelling at a few of the things that had been recorded differently in one book than in another.

"I'm not sure we've met before. My name is Roger Smith, Negotiator. I've been trying to put together a coherent timeline of history, and a few things don't match up here," he began, and showed his notes to Pit. One was marked "NEO England," and one was marked "Empire of Brittania."

"Are these supposed to be the same place?" he asked.

[can_not_fly]

[Pit swallows, and looks at Roger's map curiously, before looking at him with an honest "I have no idea" face]

Beats me. I'm in your same boat, here. I just arrived into this world and I'm still kinda lost.

[paradigmstop]

"This... world?" he asked, hesitatingly. "What world are you from, originally, then?" he asked. This was going to get ugly, he knew it.

3

[sakurasblood]

Mira's watching the repairs on the machine chuckling at the other techs. She's got a sucker in her mouth and part of her cyclone taken apart, the computer on her CV-R's wrist beeping away with the diagnostics.

"You know it shouldn't be that hard for you guys to deal with it. Most of it looks simple compared to some of the other machines you have in here." Offering to help? Only if the pilot gets frustrated at their slow work. She taps a few keys on her board and takes another suck on the pop shoving it to the side of her cheek while leaning over a circuit board to fix the circuit the computer told her about.

Re: 3

[paradigmstop]

Roger half-grinned, half-sneered. Here was someone who understood that Big O wasn't happy with being left unrepaired for such a long time. On the other hand, she also seemed like the kind of person Roger would generally avoid (a little too much Angel in recent past told him that was a better idea).

"Do you think you could maybe have them kick the pace up a little bit, miss...?" he said, nodding toward her. His last word ended in an upward intonation, as if he was asking her name.

Re: 3

[sakurasblood]

"It's Mira," She stood. "Mind if I download the blueprints a moment? I mean yeah they're complaining about him being an antique, but really so's my bike compared to a lot of the machines."

Re: 3

[paradigmstop]

He shrugged a bit. "His archetype was destroyed, so I don't know if there are any blueprints stored in his Memory Core, but feel free to give it a shot."

"Bike," she had said. "Are you another Kamen Rider, as well? Like miss Hoshi?" he asked, recalling the girl who called herself Vita and the conversation they had just earlier. It was a legitimate assumption to make!